30 Day Shred Update 1

Hello, friends! Ready for an update on the Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred Challenge??? I bet you are! Because I write this in diary form everyday this is a really long post. So feel free to skip over and read what you want. I thought about shortening it but then I realized keeping all of this is super helpful for me so bear with me!

Before I begin, let me explain the 30 Day Shred.

JM (my girl) leads you through three rounds of 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs. She keeps it moving pretty fast so by the time you realize it, you’re done and she is telling you this is your last cardio. There are 3 difficulty levels included and you move on when you can. A lot of internets suggest doing level 1 for 10 days, level 2 for 10, and level 3 for 10. But obviously you do what you can do. Let me assure you that level 1 is difficult so if you’re afraid this might be too easy, just try it. You can find Level 1 here on YouTube. Skidoooosh!

Here we go! Weeeee!! (I try to write these every day so my feelings are fresh so everything will be written as if it is today [aka in present tense])

Day 1 5/12/2013

This was the day that started the challenge. The challenge wasn’t premeditated. I decided to do it after doing the workout today.

Motivation: high! I lolligagged in the morning before getting up to do it and I even tried to talk myself out of it when I saw it was already noon, but I did it and was so glad I did! This was Mother’s Day so my day was jam-packed and doing the workout today made me realize how quick it really is. I had to cheat a little here.

Cheats: Pushups on my knees: I ain’t ashamed! I do half of the overhead raises with squats without weights and half with weights. After those pushups my arms are killing me! I do all of the jumping jacks, but march in place for some of the jump ropes. I never cheat on the abs, but I would like to be able to do the inverted crunch better. The next thing I cheat on is the arm raises with side lunges. I only cheat for 4 raises every 10 or so so it’s not soooo bad.

After feelings: I was tired, sweaty, but feeling great! And determined to do this again and again and again.

Hunger: Well, I was hungry all day in anticipation of my yummy meal!

Day 2 5/13/2013

I told myself that all I had to do was wake up today and show myself how easy it is to do. And I did it. My butt got out of bed at 6:45 and it was a struggle. I hit snooze a few times and my neck was really sore and normally that would be a reason to stay in bed because I shouldn’t “strain it.” I was pretty sure it was only sore from sleeping funny and I told myself if something didn’t feel good in the workout then I wouldn’t do that move. My neck felt fine in the workout, but is still a little sore.

Motivation: High! I wanted to show myself that I could do it. Plus I purposely told my parents and brother about it the night before and that made me get out of bed even more! I also knew I wanted to blog about it and public humiliation is a huge motivator!

Cheats: Same as day 1.

After feeling: Energized! It’s 2:36 right now on 5/13/2013 and I don’t feel any more tired than I would on a day I woke up at 7:30. I think it is because I wasn’t foggy all morning while getting ready and I didn’t have to rush as much as I normally do. The workout allowed my fog to lift before it was time to shower and what not. We’ll see how I feel tonight though! I’m also a little worried about DOMS. I get it really bad and I know it will be a struggle to work through the pain in the coming days. I was so sweaty yesterday that I wore a tank top my cousin got me that reveals a message on your back when it gets wet. I don’t know what was up with me today, but I wasn’t as sweaty and no message appeared. Wompwomp.

Hunger: Starving alllll day. I had one piece of bread with pb right after the workout with some water and my normal berry shake at 8:30 for breakfast. Lunch was leftovers from dinner: risotta and kale pizza at noon. It’s 2:46 and I am staaaaarrrrvvvvviinnng again. I’m going to have to make a more filling lunch.

Day 3 5/14/2013

Motivation: It was high on waking up. I had no trouble getting out of bed this morning. In fact, I was excited to get up and make some progress. But when I got down to the basement and started the DVD my motivation went down. I did not put in full effort for the first 6 minutes (the length of one round) and then I realized, “what am I doing? MOVE!” so I picked up my pace and finished strong. I definitely wanted to just lay on the couch for the length of the DVD but the thought that I put this out on the internet kept me going! And I was so glad I did because I went back upstairs to so many lovely comments on my Time to Share post!!

Cheats: A little different today. I’m already feeling more capable but that could be because I “phoned it in” as my girl Jillian says in the beginning. I didn’t complete the second round of pushups, instead I went into childs pose lol. I did do all of the squats and raises.

After Feeling: Still feeling good! I’m not too sore today, but I do feel it in my armpits and butt. My butt is my favorite place to feel workout pain! 😀

Hunger: I have a shake every morning for breakfast and this morning I drank half right after the workout and I’m still working on finishing it at 10:24. I’m trying to space it out hoping that will help stave off my morning hunger.

Day 4 5/15/2013

Motivation: Low, low, low. Last night I told the friend I didn’t feel like it and she told me I had better. Then this morning, I didn’t get up. I am so ashamed. I’ve actually been procrastinating on writing this entry and was even talking to myself about reformatting my updates so that I wouldn’t have to include this. But then I realized that I’m not only writing these updates to share with everyone, I’m writing them for myself. Being able to look back and see what worked and what didn’t is going to be so helpful. And I would be doing a disservice to me and to you by only showing the good parts. Like anything, there is a silver lining and I found one. This morning I realized it was 6:50 and I still hadn’t gotten up at the 6:45 workout wake up time and told myself it was too late so I might as well sleep. It wasn’t too late and I knew that. The workout takes me about 35-40 minutes from the time I get out of bed to the time I get in the shower. That would have had me back upstairs at 7:30 in plenty of time to get ready. Especially since I ended up not waking up until 7:35 this morning and you know what? I actually felt less energized and more groggy this morning. I hope I remember this tomorrow when I go to push snooze. I’ll be doing the workout tonight and throwing in a few videos from The Fitnessista‘s new YouTube channel. I always love her videos and I’m considering this “punishment” for not getting up this morning.

Day 5 5/16/2013

As promised, I worked out last night to make up for the morning and I pushed myself hard. Before doing Shred, I did this video to warm up and have some fun. I was so proud to find that some of the moves were getting easier and I wasn’t becoming fatigued so quickly. I finished all of the timed push-ups (on my knees, like a lady) and got down lower than ever before. I was onnnneeeee sweaty beast by the time I was done. Now on to this morning…

Motivation: Medium. I wanted to get back on the wagon of waking up so I did but I wasn’t happy about it. I trekked down to the basement and started my workout and could instantly tell something was wrong. My body was giving me its pass out signals: cold sweat, increased heart rate, dizziness. So I laid on the ground for a few minutes and when I still didn’t feel that great, I decided to go make a good breakfast and to workout tonight. I didn’t eat after my tough workout last night and I think my body just wasn’t fueled enough. I’m sad that I didn’t get a workout in, but I will do it tonight again and throw in another dance cardio video. Upside of working out at night: I have more energy and can get some laundry done quickly since the w/d is in the basement!

Day 6 5/17/2013

Motivation: To say that my motivation dropped at this point is an understatement. I did not wake up to workout. It was probably just an excuse, but I still wasn’t feeling 100% so I slept in. And I’m not happy about it. I’m disappointed in myself and I’m also worried what anyone who is following this is going to think about me. I hope to make this up over the weekend.

Day 7 5/18/2013

Motivation: Still low. Aunt Flo should be coming any day now and I think this is contributing to my low energy. I work on Saturdays at my Dad’s Kitchen and Bath Design Center and one of my duties is to clean. So I mopped the entire store today which took a good hour or so and was quite the workout. I planned to do the workout later, but I didn’t. I am such a bad challenger! I could list all the reasons why I didn’t but they really are just excuses. I promise that next week will be an awesome week.

Week 1 Summary

Well I started out strong and proud of myself. 30 Day Shred isn’t easy and kicks your butt every morning. Midway through the week I was feeling good and hoped to move to Level 2 after 10 days but because I took so many inexcusable days off, I don’t know if that will happen anymore. I added another aspect of this challenge to hopefully kick myself in the ass. Have you heard of GymPact? I downloaded the app last night and set myself up for a pact of 3 days a week with $10 for each missed day. GymPact is basically a pact with yourself where you pledge to workout a certain amount of a days a week and pledge a monetary amount that will automatically be charged to your card when you miss. The bet goes from Monday-Sunday and they will charge you at the end of the week. If you make your pact, you aren’t charged but instead get a tiny bit of money paid by those who didn’t meet their pact. You can check in at a gym, connect it to your RunKeeper account, or wear it during a home workout for it to track your movements. No one told me about this app, I just randomly found it, so I can’t say how it works. I’ll let you know at the end of the week if it was easy to do and accurately tracked me. If you’d like to join, shoot me an email at thejustjacq at gmail dot com because you get a free $5 if I invite you. I don’t think I get anything, just trying to help you out 🙂

I definitely felt a difference in my strength from day 1 to day 4. I know it doesn’t seem possible, but I was able to complete more of the workout as each day went by. I also felt that I was better able to suck my stomach in after a few days.

I don’t have any photo updates for you… bad blogger. But I am hoping to have some next week.

Is anyone joining me in the challenge? I’d love to hear your updates! Leave a comment with your blog or email me so I can follow you.

I’m looking for another 30 day challenge to do when this one is done. Any suggestions? Anyone try another JM DVD?

12 responses to “30 Day Shred Update 1”

Do you listen to music at all? After I’ve gotten used to a workout DVD I put on my headphones and crank up the tunes to keep me moving. And I have been doing 30 shred on and off for three years and I still do push-ups on my knees!

Gosh I was reading the comment above and don’t know how you did this without music. I usually listen to some crazy stuff when I am working out. I too mostly do girl push ups..but they are called girl push ups for a reason right?